“Today the Court ruled against all of our children and against our ideals. This mistake hits especially close to home in Massachusetts, where twenty towns could be affected. Schools across our state are working to level the playing field and offer all of our children a good education, regardless of race. Metco has been a Massachusetts success story and national model, and it’s beyond unacceptable for Metco to be threatened by a horrific decision by the Supreme Court.

“This decision is a terrible blow to civil rights in our country, and a disturbing reminder why we filibustered Samuel Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court in the first place. This decision has turned Brown vs. Board of Education’s promise of fairness and opportunity for all upside down. This is, simply, overheated ideological and judicial activism run amok, and our state and everyone who believes in equal opportunity have work ahead to ensure that progress is not reversed.”

The N.Y. Times editorial board weighs in on the Supreme Court decision saying, “It was a sad day for the court and for the ideal of racial equality.”

And the L.A. Times notes, “The decision opens the door to legal challenges to integration strategies that have been adopted in school systems across the country, including Los Angeles Unified School District — strategies that limit the number of white and minority students who may attend particular schools.”

It is a sad day indeed. Todd and Hart have more on the decision here and here.

My kids were in three school districts. One very mixed where my son was in a Jr High that had Bloods and Crips. One very high class lily white, where his peers had pagers (in ’94) they used to get drugs they had plenty of money for, and one that was also mixed but the schools they attended were what I would consider mainstream. They were also in the same district (and close to ) Columbine High School. My son was a senior in ’99.

There is one basic difference in the schools that determines how well the kids do. Parent involvement. Just as important is whether that involvement is constructive or destructive. If the child has supportive parents who are genuinely concerned with the progress and actual learning, they offer the kind of attention and support that facilitates learning. Not derogatory, demeaning or angry at the child – or the teachers.

Here in Denver, a lot of progress is being made using new techniques and emphazing parental involvement. The problems are not simple and neither are the solutions.

When white schools have old textbooks, who is responsible? The folks who insisted they wanted “all the fat out of the budget”? Did they cut any of the football program fat?

The point is that for every child to reach a reasonable level of their potential, we have to find ways to meet their learning needs enough to get them there. Why? Because the better able they are able to reach that potential the more they can be functional members of society, as opposed to unemployed, doing drugs, alcohol, crime, etc.

One of my kids has her dad’s dyslexic genes. With a great deal of emotional support, tutoring, special training we paid for, and some very high technology in electronics and computers she graduated in the top third of her class and is now racking up 4 point semesters on her way to a degree in mechanical engineering. She is one of the very few kids who always did homework, for hours every evening and on weekends, always had her homework done, was ready for tests and never did an alnighter.

Egalitarianism is not anti-science. It is understanding science enough to help as much as possible to overcome the problem genes and basic instincts. Like we expect people to be responsible about their sexual instincts.

Ginny: If I ever had children, I always figured that the best thing I could do for them was to learn in front of them. Second best would be to teach them. Learning in front of them teaches that learning is a function of life, not just of childhood. Teaching them more directly, and reveling in their learning accomplishments, should end up making them more avid learners (as well as exposing where they are weak).

And them i guess that I would give them lessons in self defense so they would feel relaxed enough in their daily lives to be able to give scholl the correct focus.